U.S. Forces Strike at Iranian Proxies in Syria in Response to Series of Attacks

Latest Developments

• U.S. Forces Respond to Attacks in Syria: U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) conducted strikes against an Iranian proxy terrorist group in Syria on November 12. According to a CENTCOM statement, a weapons storage and logistics headquarters facility was targeted in response to a rocket attack against U.S. forces at Patrol Base Shaddadi. The latest strikes came one day after U.S. strikes against nine Iranian proxy targets in Syria in response to two separate attacks against U.S. forces at the Green Village mission support site in northeastern Syria on November 10.

• U.S. Forces Under Attack by Iranian Proxies: Iranian proxies have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan more than 180 times since October 2023, wounding dozens of U.S. servicemembers and killing three American soldiers.

• U.S. Navy Battles Houthis in the Red Sea: Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked two U.S. Navy destroyers with at least eight drones and eight anti-ship missiles on November 11. The attacks followed a series of CENTCOM strikes against multiple Houthi weapons storage facilities over the weekend. The Houthis have waged a systematic assault against commercial shipping and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea over the past year, attacking U.S. naval vessels on multiple occasions.

FDD Expert Response

“America’s adversaries should know that if they attack our troops or our bases, the response will be punishing and overwhelming. We should not wait for American casualties to respond in a way that makes the adversary regret the attack. Let’s hope the Biden administration follows this more assertive policy between now and the presidential inauguration in January, and let’s hope we see a strong policy from the outset of the incoming administration.” — Bradley Bowman, Senior Director of FDD’s Center of Military and Political Power

“Central Command’s recent strikes in Syria should represent a shift in how the United States responds to attacks on its forces in the Middle East. Rather than waiting for the number of attacks to spiral out of control or for Americans to be killed or wounded for a forceful response to take shape, these strikes served as near-immediate responses to attacks that were relatively small in both number and scale. These timely and forceful responses should be the norm, not the exception.” — Cameron McMillan, Research Analyst